How Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Win a Car Accident Case?

The first thing for a person to understand when deciding to make a legal claim is that lawyers charge lots of money for their services.

Billing

Because of the time and level of education required to become a lawyer, fees are usually very high, and often range between $100 to $200 per hour for typical firms delivering ordinary services, and well over that for specialty firms or those with elite reputation.

The good news is that the end result in a winning case justifies this expense.

Lawyers charge customers using a variety of billing methods. Generally speaking, there are two types of billing structures: those that charge the client on the contingency that the case is won, and those that bill clients per hours worked on the case.

Lawyers who bill by the hour request payment at increments either of hours worked or of days on the calendar.

Contingency lawyers charge no legal fees unless the case wins a money payout from the opposition. Because of this, clients of these lawyers can enjoy peace of mind that if they undertake a legal fight to receive financial compensation for harm caused in a car crash, they will not be left with a lawyer bill in the event the case loses. In fact, these clients can only gain money, and cannot lose, according to this billing method.

Contingency lawyers operate with the presumption that they will win the case. This is why they do not charge the client any legal fees, whatsoever, if the case is lost. Because of this, lawyers operating on a contingency are very selective about the cases they take, since losing a case not only earns them no money, but also wastes valuable time they could otherwise have used in fighting a winning, money-producing case.  While any good lawyer will advise that there is no sure thing in the legal courts, a savvy lawyer understands there is such a thing as a good bet, and contingency lawyers evaluate each and every case presented to them to pick the ones that provide not only the best chances to win, but also the best potential payouts.

In short, if a contingency lawyer takes on your case, you can believe that you are much more likely to win than to lose.

Contingency lawyers typically charge clients a percentage of money won in the case, and usually, this percentage ends up being higher than that charged by lawyers who bill clients by the hour. While the services end up being more costly, the luxury of fighting a case not only with no up-front fees but also with no bill at the end of the proceedings appeals to many people, especially those with limited finances.

Evidence

The second, and equally important thing for a potential litigant to understand, is that evidence is needed to win a court case. No lawyer wins a case without presenting evidence. The rules of evidence adopted by California, along with the vast majority of other states closely follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, and constitutes a major branch of the legal field. Since neither the judge nor jury were present at the scene of your accident and therefore cannot, themselves, bear witness to the events involved in the crash, they will look for evidence produced by your lawyer to determine if you have a legitimate legal claim. Your evidence must not only prove your claims, but also refute the claims of the opposition.

Personal injury lawyers win court cases by presenting evidence, and asserting the legal ramifications of that evidence.

The evidence, however, does not present itself. Rather, it requires the skill of an attorney not only to make it allowable into court in the first place, but also to serve its place in proving the points it is meant to prove. Evidence offered within the proper legal framework provides the link between a claim made in court, and certainty in the minds of the decision makers that the claim is true.

Experienced lawyers predict the objections and responses by the opposition before even presenting the evidence, and have a plan to combat those objections and responses before they arise. Generally speaking, evidence in court takes the form of physical objects, documents, legal statutes, case law, and personal testimony.

Find an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney

If you or a loved one has suffered financial harm as the result of a vehicle crash, you must seek the help of a skilled lawyer to assert your claims in a court of law.